Be Kind Rewind (DVD)

...rental, which I chose to be this movie. I had seen the trailer for it in the cinema months ago and thought that it didn't look like a movie worth watching on the big screen but it might be mildly amusing and worth renting, so I went for it.

For anyone interested, I was pleasantly surprised with the picture quality during playback, I only selected the lower high quality (compared to 'super high quality') format/version, supposedly ...
...movie trailer, that it would be probably more of a 3 star movie, ok but a bit weak storywise but it turned out to be better than I had presumed... read on for more information on the movie and what I thought of it...

Oh and also, incase anyones wondering, it was me that posted a short review of the movie on the Lovefilm site, so it is indeed the same IzzyS...


- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further ... more

- Introduction -

Well this moview was a first for me, in as much as I had been trying a new setup whereby I can connect my laptop to my TV and watch movies that I rent as downloads through the Lovefilm site (and a couple of others too, there are a few such sites that offer movie rental downloads in the UK). I had been contacting the company and I pointed out some incorrect information that they had on their site which had confused me and in response I was given one free rental to my new account, so that made me very pleased! I had been looking forward to renting a movie and seeing how decent the picture quality is on my TV, so yesterday I decided to give it a go and get my free movie rental, which I chose to be this movie. I had seen the trailer for it in the cinema months ago and thought that it didn't look like a movie worth watching on the big screen but it might be mildly amusing and worth renting, so I went for it.

For anyone interested, I was pleasantly surprised with the picture quality during playback, I only selected the lower high quality (compared to 'super high quality') format/version, supposedly equivalent to VHS quality but it was very much watchable on my 20" TV (also quickly just to say, for anyone interested, I simply connect the laptop using the VGA port to the VGA port marked as 'PC' on the back of my TV and then the audio is played through computer speakers connected to the headphone port on my laptop, so thats how I have it set up at the moment), so im happy with that. What better movie to pick to test this out than this one? given the story, its kinda ironic! and it wasn't a bad movie at all, really... I had presumed, while watching the movie trailer, that it would be probably more of a 3 star movie, ok but a bit weak storywise but it turned out to be better than I had presumed... read on for more information on the movie and what I thought of it...

Oh and also, incase anyones wondering, it was me that posted a short review of the movie on the Lovefilm site, so it is indeed the same IzzyS...

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0799934/fullcredits)

Director - Michel Gondry
Writer - Michael Gondry
Producers - Georges Bermann, Julie Fong
Associate Producer - Raffi Adlan
Co-producer - Ann Ruark
Executive Producers - Toby Emmerich, Guy Stodel
Cinematography - Ellen Kuras

- Story (incl. some of the acting cast) -

'Be Kind Rewind' starts off by talking about the jazz singer Fats Waller and his legacy, I suppose. Then it cuts to the town of Passaic in New Jersey and a local, rather run down looking video rental store called 'Be Kind Rewind', which is run by Elroy Fletcher (played by Danny Glover), who has taught his son or friend (its not really clear), Mike (played by Mos Def), that Fats lived in that same building. Next we learn that the building is set to be demolished, to make way for a modern building but obviously Elroy is against this, wanting to keep his video store open. He faces quite a battle though and he announces to Mike that he's to leave for a few days, to attend a sort of memorial holiday for Fats aboard a train and while he's gone, he wants Mike to take over at the video store.

However, he doesn't want Jerry (played by Jack Black), the local layabout who seems to do nothing but get in the way, to be allowed into the shop. Unfortunately, Mike didn't understand what Elroy was saying when he tried to pass him that message and the two of them (Mike and Jerry) are good friends, so he still hangs out at the video store. He somehow convinces himself that he's being badly affected by a local power station and so he decides to sabotage it one night.

The next day, he returns to the video store and comes in contact with a number of videos, which customers later go on to rent and then return, angry that they don't show any footage. It turns out that Jerry somehow became magnetised after being around the power station and any tape he had touched has been wiped of all contents. Panicking, knowing that Elroy had specifically trusted Mike to keep the store going and not let anything go wrong, the two of them go around town looking for extra copies of the movies that locals request to rent but (as its presumably set around the turn of the millennium), they can't find anywhere that sells many VHS tapes, with rival stores mainly selling DVDs instead. So, they end up filming remakes of the movies they lost thanks to Jerry, with an old camcorder. They remake lots of different popular movies from both the 80s and 90s, such as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour II, Driving Miss Daisy, Robocop and others, with a distinctly lower budget feel to them of course! and eventually the store gets more and more customers, as word gets out about these movie 'remakes', which they call 'Sweded movies' and the store ends up in a sort of cult status, with people arriving from outside the state just to see one of these movies.

However, was it all in vain? as word also spreads to the lawyers of the movie studios that made the original films and the store gets slapped with a massive fine for copyright infringement (one of the lawyers is played by Sigourney Weaver, for anyone interested).

What will happen? will they get out of having to pay for the copyright infringement? can enough funds be raised to save the store from closing and being demolished? what will Elroy make of whats happened when he returns, does he kill Mike?! you'll have to watch the movie to find out, of course. I know this is a long story description by the way but I wanted to elaborate a bit more than other sites do about what the movie is about, there aren't really any spoilers in what I say though, that im aware of.

- Genre/Themes -

This is a comedy with a serious element to it, I suppose. It could be seen as a homage to film making and it also tackles the issue of growing up in a deprived area and local, or family, folklore, I suppose. You could also say its a movie about friendship and providing entertainment for the community, if that makes any sense.

- Thoughts/Opinions/Extra Information -

I was quite pleasantly surprised with this movie, I thought it could be a one-joke movie, so to speak but I thought it was better than that really. I like the fact that its really a 'movie within a movie', in as much as there's the main story about Mike and Jerry filming remakes of old movies but there's also the more serious side to it with the story about the rental store being earmarked for demolition and there's also the story about the store having a historical significance as being a place that Fats Waller stayed in. Some might think that its quite sentimental, as it is quite, which perhaps doesn't entirely fit in whats marketed as, and predominantly is, a comedy movie but I thought it was touching and enjoyed it all the same.

Some of the movies that Mike and Jerry remake, or the 'swedes', are funnier than others, I think my favourite one was Rush Hour II, followed by Driving Miss Daisy. Its quite funny to see how they try to remake such originally large budget movies, on a significantly smaller budget, like how they re-create the famous opening scene from Ghostbusters, with the ghost in the NY public library, at their local library. I don't think the staff there were much impressed, put it that way! but it is quite funny. The two of them, Mike and Jerry, have their fair share of arguments and sometimes its rather awkward for them to recreate certain scenes (especially if one of them is supposed to be portraying a female character!), as you can probably quite imagine! yes it is rather silly humour but I thought it was quite funny all the same. Its nice to see that these characters clearly do care enough to want to make something to give back to the community and how the community respond to this with a big demand to see more and more of these budget 'sweded movies'.

This is a funny and entertaining yet sentimental and touching movie, that I would recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting. Okay it might not be perfect, in as much as the science behind it might not be entirely plausible and the ending may disappoint you too, I don't want to give it away but it might not be quite what you'd hope... but there again, people might be happy with it because it may be seen as being more realistic, perhaps. I'll leave that to you to decide.

I think there is a nice message implied there on one hand and I like that it does seem to have quite an upbeat and optimistic kind of a feel to it, you might live in a run down area with little to look up to but become creative and you can become the next big thing I suppose is sort of whats being put across.

I thought that Mos Def gave a good performance in this movie, you can tell that he does care about the store and he wants to do a good job for Elroy, knowing he was entrusted with it while he's gone and acting alongside Jack Black, who gives his usual sort of lazy unemployed guy performance, he does quite well. Danny Glover also gives a good performance, again you can feel the emotion from him when he talks about Fats and you can tell how much the video store means to him too.

- Certificate -

Be Kind Rewind is rated 12 in the UK. This is due to some sexual references. There isn't much offensive material in this movie really, I can't remember any strong language, there isn't any violence as such and no sex scenes or nudity or drug references, so its pretty inoffensive really and should be fine for older kids or teens to watch.

- Official Website -

The official website can be found here:- http://www.bekindmovie.com/
This site is quite good fun actually. You can find downloads (wallpapers, screensavers and AIM icons). You can also swede yourself, whereby you select a genre and film you want to be a part of and then upload a photo of your face and it shows you on the front cover of said film - what fun! lol!

You can also view the trailer for the movie and there's another 'Sweding' section to the site, which explains what 'Sweding' is (with a link to Wikipedias entry for the movie, though be aware the Wikipedia entry contains the full plot which contains spoilers!) and encourages you to swede movies to upload to a sweded version of YouTube, believe it or not lol. Of course you need the latest version of Flash Player to get this site it work, as per usual.

- Conclusions -

I thought that this was quite an amusing and entertaining movie, with a sentimental side to it that added to it quite well. Its not totally a throw away movie, although I don't know that I would want to watch it more than once really. I don't feel its excellent as such but I do think its worth seeing, the story could have become rather weak by the middle or end of it, had it been the one joke movie I thought it might be but instead, I thought it was better than that and I like that there are two or three sort of separate stories within the one movie.

Some probably would/will be put off by the sentimentality it has, if you think it sounds a bit too sickly sweet then you might not find it so great, although thats not an aspect thats present throughout the whole movie but moreso at the start and towards the end of it. This movie doesn't break any new ground for Jack Black but Mos Def and Danny Glover do quite well.

I'd say that its worth renting but maybe don't buy it, as im not convinced its the sort of movie I would really re-watch.

Overall, I feel that this movie was better than I had expected and I would recommend it to others, there is more to it than meets the eye, although it depends on whether you like such sub stories, whether this will appeal to you. If it sounds like something that would interest you, then definitely check it out, otherwise maybe leave it for now, im sure it'll be shown on TV within the next few years, like most movies are.

I hope that this review is useful and thanks, as always, for reading 

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